Is it just me or has this year been uncommonly windy? It feels like every day there is a gale blowing. The weather forecast, never overly accurate at the best of times, seems to be totally out of touch with what actually happens this season. Here we are in July and the weather remains cold and very, very windy. I cancelled my plans to do some fishing on Thursday due to the gales but Friday dawned calm and dry so I set off to try a new venue. Blackrock pond lies between Carrick on Shannon and Drumshanbo and, allegedly, was home to a few tench. That gap between howling gale and torrential rain was due to end by mid-afternoon so I figured that a morning session should be enough time to get a feeling for this small fishery.
I brought along a new rod. Displaying admirable meanness, I had purchased a 13 foot float rod reduced from €160 to only €30 earlier this year but had not had the opportunity to try it out yet. Getting me to part with €160 for any rod these days would be impossible but the huge reduction made it seem like I wasn’t taking too much of a chance on this one. Slightly heavier than my other float rods, I wanted this one for tench and the very occasional carp session. I paired it with that ABU Garcia reel which I am slowly coming to like after a shaky start. On it’s first outing a few years ago I landed a ten pound salmon while spinning with it but the drag was not up to such punishment and I was left feeling less than confident in it stopping power. It lay in a corner of the fishing room for a long time before I finally re-spooled it with new 6 pound mono and gave it a try as a coarse reel. In its new role I have to say it works very well and it is often on my float rods these days.
I had also searched through my spare floats to fill up my tackle box. Some hefty bodied wagglers were just gathering dust in a box in the press so they were transferred to my main tackle box which always comes with me. You may be thinking what about the cheeky wee chubber that I used on my last coarse outing? Well, true to form I broke it somehow. I’m not sure what exactly happened but it is now in two distinct pieces, both chucked in a plastic box for repair during the winter. Nothing if not consistent, I break an average of one float every trip. Some of you have rightly recommended that I start to make my own floats and I think I’ll give it a bash over the winter. For now, the massive collection of secondhand floats I own will be more than enough to cope with the horrendous attrition rate.
First task of the day was to buy some bait and that meant a drive all the way to Carrick-on-Shannon and a visit to Carrick Angling. This time I insisted on solely red maggots in place of my usual mixed colours. Whatever about silvers, when it comes to tench it simply has to be red maggots for me. A pint was purchased and stuffed into the bag with all the other gear. A packet of prawns and some casters from the fridge were already secreted in my bag, so the fish had a choice of goodies to pick from.
Setting up on a well worn peg to the right of the disabled stand I fired in 4 balls of ground bait consisting of Sensas 3000, some oat flakes and a little hemp. Some small rudd were taking midges off the surface but otherwise it was quiet. Out went the feeder rod and then I set up the new 13 footer. It was heavier in the hand than I had anticipated but the reel was on the small side for such a powerful rod and I guess that didn’t help. Anyway, I started fishing about three rod lengths out with a size 12 hook over depth and loaded with wriggling red maggots. Lily pads to my right looked for all the world as the perfect hiding spot for tench and I was feeding hard against them. The only distraction was the road which was about 5 yards behind me. Whenever an HGV roared by the soft ground I was perched on would wobble and quake in a slightly alarming fashion.
It took a while, but the bites finally began to come. Nervous little twitches yielded nothing solid so I dropped the hook to a size 14 and right away my fortunes changed. A couple of small skimmers first, then some equally miniature roach came to hand before another quiet spell allowed me to munch my sandwiches without disturbance. Next up, some hybrids settled in the swim, their bites being much more positive and my hooking ration improved markedly. My constant dribble of maggots fired into the swim attracted a lot of rudd but mercifully not one of them took my baited hook. Instead, the snotties returned and for the rest of the session it was just skimmers who sucked in the red maggots under my float. The feeder produced nothing but a couple of half-hearted rattles but nothing hooked. I guess I landed around 30 fish for the session, none of the skimmers, roach or hybrids requiring the services of the net.
Of tench there was no sign. No bubbles or fish topping. I am not suggesting there are no tench in Blackrock pond, it was just they were keeping a low profile while I was there. An early morning session would undoubtedly be a much better option.
About 2pm I packed up as the forecast was for torrential rain by 4. Sure enough, the drops started to fall as I crossed into Mayo and by 5pm the streets in Castlebar were awash. So what to make of Blackrock pond then? While it was disappointing not to contact any tench it is a lovely little lough to fish and I will be back soon to learn more about it. On this occasion I had geared up for big fish but just encountered tiddlers so the next time I will revert back to light eleven footers. If there are skimmers there will be better sized bream in the pond and my next visit will see me armed with a lot of ground bait to try and attract them into me. I know that sweetcorn is a bait which has never worked for me but I’ll bring some with me on my next visit to Blackrock in case the tench fancy that instead of my usual maggots.
I’ve already searched out an old 4500 size Daiwa fixed spool which is a better fit for the 13 foot rod. That combination will be grand for any heavy duty work and I’m glad I have that option now.
Claretbumbler 